Sat Nav

Bought a cheap (£60) sat nav system on Friday as I was going to deepest, darkest Lincolnshire this weeked (wanted to discove if it did have roads). Turns out that it has a bicycle mode. Was suprised, as when I mentioned sat nav to someone a few months ago and joked about using it on my bike, they told me that they all plugged into the cars lighter socket to provide them with power.

Has anyone tried using sat nav on their bike (other than the expensive Garmin things)?

I don't like the idea of Sat Nav in car and to be honest I like it even less on a bike. Getting lost just gives you an excuse to do more miles :O)

Would generally agree beanpie, but I've also found myself in the tired, cold and hungry mood and would have like the shortes route option.

Many mobiles have Sat Nav as a option (Google Maps, or Blackberry Maps, or Nokia's version).

Sometimes, I will check it before I set out, and try to memorise the route.

If I get lost, I'll check it again. But I don't think its a great idea in some areas, to take out an expensive phone, and look all touristy.

Also, if I were a thug, I'd be liberating Sat Navs from all cyclist that passed my way.

Not being a big mobile user, my phones aren't the sort that I would get mugged for, but could be used to mug people with!

Garmins are nice though, useful training aid too.

we have a guy who comes into the shop who has a tom tom attached to his stem looks stupid....

Wac

The Garmin 705 does the lot maps, speed, altitude, heart rate cadence, etc. The drawback is it's quite bulky. Hopefully they will get smaller, or go flip top, like a phone. Also can get map software for the whole world, apparently.

Tried using the one that comes on an XDA for a laugh, was absolutely shit and took me on the stupidest routes, maybe useful for places that you don't know but an a-z is only a fiver and better in my opinion.

I used a sat nav in doven, borrowed for a 20 mile fixed gear journey, very handy, worked mostly very well. Didn't know the area at all and would have definitely been much slower looking at the map constantly. It took me off the main busy roads and used narrower country lanes.

Lots of geeky information like max speed and average speed and seemed accurate.